Through the Valley of Shadows
' |image= |series= |production= 212 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt |director=Douglas Aarniokoski |imdbref=tt8288446 |guests=Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson, Mary Chieffo as L'Rell, Ethan Peck as Spock, Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, Kenneth Mitchell as Tenavik, Rachael Ancheril as Nhan, Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer, Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys, Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun, Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Lt. R.A. Bryce, Sara Mitich as Lt. Nilsson, Ali Momen as Specialist Kamran Gant / Control, Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer, Ian James Corlett as Section 31 computer, David Benjamin Tomlinson as Linus, Byron Abalos as Trainee #1 and Olivia Croft as Trainee #2 |previous_production=Perpetual Infinity |next_production=Such Sweet Sorrow Part 1 |episode=DSC S02E012 |airdate=4 April 2019 |previous_release=Perpetual Infinity |next_release=Such Sweet Sorrow Part 1 |story_date(s)=1048.66 (2257) |previous_story=Perpetual Infinity |next_story=Such Sweet Sorrow Part 1 }} Summary Discovery receives the fourth of seven signals, leading the ship to the Klingon planet of Boreth. Tyler calls Chancellor L'Rell to arrange free passage for his ship. At Boreth, L'Rell tells Pike of the possible reason for the signal to appear near the otherwise insignificant planet: It houses time crystals. When L'Rell argues with Tyler about the safety of their common son on Boreth in case Tyler was seen on Boreth, Pike says that he will beam down himself to obtain such a crystal, which may enable the crew to outwit Control. L'Rell, however, warns him that this will require a great sacrifice. On the planet, Pike is greeted by an old monk named Tenavik, who turns out to be L'Rell and Tyler's son. He exists at an older age because of the time anomalies on the planet. Pike insists on taking a time crystal with him, which comes at the cost of him witnessing his inevitable future, in which he will suffer severe radiation burns and will end up totally immobilized. Meanwhile, Burnham and Spock have embarked a shuttle to investigate an anomaly on a Section 31 ship. They find that almost the whole crew has been killed by exposing the ship to open space, obviously an "accident" arranged by Control. There is only one survivor, Kamran Gant, an officer Burnham knows from the Shenzhou. Gant agrees to return to the ship with Burnham and Spock. They devise a plan to isolate Control in the computer system. But Spock notices that after purging the computer a remainder of the program is left: in Gant's body. Control lured Burnham to the ship to get rid of her, because the AI considers her a threat. Burnham continues to fire her phaser, but even after repeated hits Gant is still not disabled. Finally the nanobots leave his body. Spock incapacitates them by magnetizing the floor. He and Burnham return with the information that the ship was on a course to a destination somewhere outside Federation territory. Before Pike can consider the next steps, the Discovery faces a fleet of 30 Section 31 ships, apparently all controlled by the AI. Since the ship is hopelessly outgunned and there is no way to delete the Sphere data that Control wants to obtain from the computer, Burnham sees no other option but to destroy the Discovery. Pike orders to prepare the evacuation and calls the Enterprise for assistance. Errors and Explanations Continuity # Only a couple of months after the production start (as mentioned in "Point of Light"), we can see a finished Klingon D7 cruiser. It has roughly the same proportions as the iconic ship but its surface looks very different than the one of the TOS ship or of any other Klingon vessel. The countless lights insinuate a huge size, although in the direct comparison it looks like the DIS-style D7 is shorter than the Discovery and was increased to "only" about 8 times the volume of the TOS ship. Perhaps the parts were pre-fabricated to a modified design. # What will happen to the time crystals of Boreth, and why will they never appear again? Why wouldn't they play a role in TNG: "Rightful Heir" where the monks are experts in cloning, rather than "timekeepers"? They could have played a role in the creation of the Kahless clone, possibly allowing the monks to make use of the time anomalies to provide a means to accelerate the clone’s ageing, in a manner similar to that experienced by Tenavik. # Voq-Tyler repeatedly speaks of Kahless as "Kay-lesh", although the established pronunciation is "Kay-less". Lots of names have multiple pronunciations! Nitpicking # Why do all Section 31 ships have to check in in regular intervals? Isn't it the nature of covert missions to remain silent for quite some time because someone might track the communication? This could be done to ensure their mission(s) haven't been compromised. Nit Central # Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Friday, May 03, 2019 - 5:10 am: Did Pike really have to endure that horrific vision of his future? Couldn't he have beamed the time crystal to Discovery, or used some sort of instrument to pick it up, or even a simple pair of gloves? Any of those methods could have damaged the crystal, rendering it unusable. # When Burnham and Spock reach the disabled Section 31 ship, they see its dead crew floating around it, having been ejected by a sudden explosive decompression. Actually, they should no longer be there, the momentum they acquired when they were ejected should have carried them far away by the time Burnham arrives. Not necessarily – the decompression may have occurred relatively recently, thus explaining why the bodies are still in the area. TV Tropes Headscratchers # When Pike comes to Boreth, Tenavik warns him that the Time Crystals are going to test him, and that his mind probably can't take it. And when Pike touches one of the Crystal, it seemingly intentionally shows him the worst part of his future (instead of, for example, the Happily Ever After ending that follows the worst part), the implication being that Crystals do that to everyone who tries to take them, and that most people Go Mad from the Revelation. So are we assume these minerals somehow have a mind of their own? How does that make sense? And even if we were to accept that minerals are sentient, what exactly is the point of this test of character? 'There's precedent for mineral based sentient life in Star Trek, like the Horta or the Excalbians from the original series. There's a WMG that the crystals show someone the worst thing they'll experience in the future as a deterrent to people taking them. This makes sense, as this is what they did to Pike. If this is true, maybe it's not a test of character at all and the crystals don't care who's "worthy". They don't want anyone to take them and the vision of the future is an evolved defense mechanism against that. The visions are enough to deter almost everyone but not a dedicated starfleet captain out to save the galaxy, like Pike. Notes Category:EpisodesCategory:Discovery